History ComicBook / AnyasGhost

* ChekhovsGun: Little Sasha's obsession with dinosaur bones, of all things, [[spoiler:turns out to be useful when he finds [[SoulJar Emily's finger bone]] and stores it in a box, enabling Anya to end her rampage by taking it, and her, out of the house.]]

** Dima, a little Russian boy whose family is friends with Anya's mother, was always friendly with Anya and appears to think they're friends. In fact, Anya hates him and tries to ignore him, believing he deserves to be bullied for being a "fobby creep". Later in the story, when Anya realizes how unfair and judgmental she has been, she starts to be nicer to Dima. She opens up to him on how she was also bullied as a child, telling him not to worry about impressing his schoolmates.

* AlphaBitch: Deconstructed with Elizabeth. If you are familiar with high school tropes you'll think she'll be one, however she doesn't have the mean-spirited personality that typically defines them. It soon becomes obvious that Anya is the nasty one and she and the other girls are jealous of Elizabeth for being all around "perfect". [[spoiler:However, when we get to the party we find out Sean likes to sleep around with other girls and Elizabeth not only knows about it, she ''goes along with it,'' because she only feels good about herself if she and Sean are together and desperately wants to keep him in her life. All her positive traits mean very little to her and it only shows she probably has little to no self esteem.]]

* HairDecorations: Siobhan wears two hair clips.

* WeightWoe: Despite not being particularly overweight and even considered pretty by some characters, Anya sees herself as fat and refuses to eat her mother's homemade cheese dumplings because they're too greasy, even though she loved them when she was a little girl. Some of her dialogue implies that this complex is the result of the elders at her church telling her that she's too fat "while their ankles are spilling over their orthopedic shoes."

* WomanScorned: [[spoiler: Emily, after the boy she likes calls her ugly and goes of with another woman, burns their house down with both of them inside.]]

* WeightWoe: Despite not being particularly overweight, Anya sees herself as fat and refuses to eat her mother's homemade cheese dumplings because they're too greasy, even though she loved them when she was a little girl. Some of her dialogue implies that this complex is the result of the elders at her church telling her that she's too fat "while their ankles are spilling over their orthopedic shoes."

** Dima, a little Russian boy whose family is friends with Anya's mother, was always friendly with Anya and appears to think they're friends. In fact, Anya hates him and tries to ignore him, believing he deserves to be bullied for being a "fobby creep".
** Anya is jealous of and greatly resents popular girl Elizabeth Standard. She has a crush on Elizabeth's boyfriend Sean and plans to steal him from her. Anya hates how everything about her is utterly nice, making her wish Elizabeth would show just once that she can be imperfect too. Elizabeth appears to be completely in the dark about how Anya feels about her, and treats her nicely.

* YouCanBarelyStand: Almost said word-for-word when [[spoiler: Emily crawls out of the well, bones and all, to try and drag Anya down with her. But it's obvious it's taking all she has just to move her remains. Her apparent weakness and anguish make this scene a bit of a Tear Jerker.]]

** Dima.
** Arguably also Emily. [[spoiler: Before she snaps]].
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Emily seems to think so.

* AnAesop: As mentioned above; everyone has problems. Even the person or couple you envy for being "perfect", [[BeneathTheMask could in reality have bigger issues than you have.]]
* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: Sasha at least gets on Anya's nerves a lot.
* AxeCrazy: [[spoiler: Emily.]]

* ComingOfAgeStory: For Anya as she struggles to deal with highschool life.
* ControlFreak: [[spoiler: Emily shows her true colors as one when she starts taking more and more control over Anya's life, trying to force her to live the life she wanted.]]
* ClingyJealousGirl: [[spoiler: Emily was this when she was alive.]]
* CuteGhostGirl: Emily's more of a [[{{Adorkable}} mousy, spindly kind of cute]], but still distinctly adorable. [[spoiler: Most of the time, anyway...]]

-->'''Anya:''' " I don't think [[spoiler: murder]] is an appropriate reaction to [[spoiler: disappointment]]."

* EveryoneHasStandards: [[spoiler: Anya may want Sean to inexplicably leave his long-time girlfriend for her instead, but if it comes at the cost of having a three-some with him and ''his best friend's girlfirend'', then she doesn't want him ''that'' badly.]]

* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Emily learns to flatten her hair to create a more modern look.
* FaceHeelTurn [[spoiler: Though it's debatable if she was a Heel to begin with.]]
* FightingAShadow: [[spoiler: Anya's predicament once Emily turns on her.]]

* ForeignCussWord: "Oy...bleen...my leg!"

* GenderBlenderName: Sasha, Anya's little brother. [[JustifiedTrope Their family is Russian.]]
* GenreSavvy: Siobhan: ''"Sean from the basketball team? Dude, he's the kind of guy you're supposed to get a crush on in a bad teen movie".''
* GhostlyGoals: Emily [[spoiler: claims to be]] a type A, trying to get her murder solved so that she can rest in peace.

* HeelRealization: Arguably from Anya in the last third of the story, realizing that she's kind of a {{Jerkass}}.
* HollywoodPudgy: Invoked: Anya is of average weight, but diets stubbornly and sees herself as obese.
* IAmNotPretty: Again, Anya. For a curvy, fresh-faced young girl, she's pretty convinced that she's unattractive.
* IfICantHaveYou: [[spoiler: Emily's]] decision after catching her crush with another girl.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Anya's definitely no angel: she lies about her last name and ethnicity, conspires to steal the boyfriend of a girl who has never wronged her whilst playing nice to said girl, ditches her one friend the moment she finds another friend who acts subservient to her, and seriously believes that nerds and minorities have themselves to thank for being picked on. She does show moral backbone when push comes to shove, though. [[spoiler:She can't go through with having sex with Sean, out of pity for Elizabeth; apologizes to Siobhan when meeting up with her later; comforts Dima when he asks her how she manages to survive high school so well; and in the end stops lying about being Russian]].

* LoveMakesYouCrazy: [[spoiler: Emily's]] excuse for burning a couple alive.

* ManipulativeBitch: [[spoiler: Emily's Evil All Along reveal. She was manipulating Anya to do what she liked in the world of the living.]]

* NonHumanSidekick: Emily is to Anya.

* ProductPlacement: A boy throws a can of Crush soda down the well where Anya is trapped, which alerts her to call for help. This probably wasn't intentional though.
* ProphetEyes: Emily, due to being dead. Her pupils do show up at least once near the end, on a closeup of her squinting eyes.

* SheCleansUpNicely: Emily convinces Anya to dress up and go to Sean's party. This is the result, although Anya wonders if she doesn't look a little "loose-womany".

* SympathyForTheDevil: Anya feels this for Emily after she takes control of her own skeleton and drags herself out of the well, bones falling apart and incapable of even forming any words with her decommissioned jawbone. Anya admits to her that she understands what it's like to want another person's life, but that neither of them can actually know what's going in someone else's head, and that they might be hurting just as much as you. She comes closer, puts her arm out, and gently tells her that what she wants, a chance to live again vicariously through Anya, doesn't even exist. [[TearsOfRemorse Emily sheds silent tears]] and dissipates herself into the night sky.
* TalkingTheMonsterToDeath: A sad variation. After Anya [[spoiler: talks Emily out of her stubborn rage, Emily's skeleton falls apart and she evaporates in order to 'move on'.]]

** Anya's mom makes ''syrniki'' cheese dumpling/pancakes for breakfast. They're never referred to as anything but сы́рники, making them look unpronounceable.

** Doubles also as a WhamShot as well.
* WhoDunnitToMe: How the story seems to initially go. [[spoiler: Subverted however, Emily's death was caused by her own accident. And even then, ''she'' was the villain.]]

* SympathyForTheDevil: Anya feels this for Emily after she takes control of her own skeleton and drags herself out of the well, bones falling apart and incapable of even forming any words with her decommissioned jawbone. Anya admits to her that she understands what it's like to want another person's life, but that neither of them can actually know what's going in someone else's head, and that they might be hurting just as much as you. She comes closer, puts her arm out, and gently tells her that what she wants, a chance to live again vicariously through Anya, doesn't even exist. [[HeelRealization Emily sheds silent tears]] and dissipates herself into the night sky.

* SelfDisposingVillain: [[spoiler: How Emily originally died. After burning the couple, she fled from authorities and fell in the well, killing herself in the process.]]

* {{Yandere}}: The teaser on the cover makes it seem like Emily will be one, but subverted. [[spoiler: Emily didn't 'help' Anya for her sake, she did it because she wanted to ''make'' Anya live the life she couldn't have.]] It's revealed that [[spoiler:Emily also played this trope straight otherwise]], though. [[spoiler:She burnt down the house of the boy she liked while he and his girlfriend were inside. because he rejected her feelings for him.]]

* EveryoneHasStandards: [[spoiler: Anya may want Sean to inexplicably leave his long-time girlfriend for her instead, but if it comes at the cost of having a three-time with him and ''his best friend's girlfirend'', then she doesn't want him ''that'' badly.]]

* ImagineSpot: Anya has one about her and Sean, as she prepares to impress him at Matt's party.
-->'''Sean:''' ''"Oh Anya, let's have an intense spiritual relationship for no believable reason!"''
-->'''Anya:''' ''"Oh Sean, take me away!"''

-->'''Sean:''' ''"

** A girl who falls down a well and becomes a ghost. [[TheRing Sounds familiar]]. The reference is made pretty explicit when [[spoiler:at the end, Emily claws her way up the well and crawls out of it, head slumped downwards]].

* EvilCounterpart: [[spoiler:Emily when her true colors are revealed]] is the evil counterpart to Anya. [[spoiler:After spending time with Anya, she turns out to possess exaggerated versions of all of Anya's negative traits: Emily is obsessive over boys (but unlike Anya, murderously so), sees existing girlfrends of 'mark' boys as competition and not individuals (but unlike Anya, she is inclined to murder them), lies and manipulates (but not just about her last name, she lies about her entire past). The mirroring is even physical: she dons Anya's hairdo and starts smoking "ghost cigarettes", presumably a mimicking of Anya's bad habit.]]

* CuteGhostGirl: She's more of a [[{{Adorkable}} mousy, spindly kind of cute]], but still distinctly adorable. [[spoiler: Most of the time, anyway...]]

* ImagineSpot: Anya has one about her and Saun, as she prepares to impress him at Matt's party.

Anya's Ghost is a single-issue graphic novel by Vera Brosgol. It features Anya: an [[OrdinaryHighschoolStudent insecure, dowdy teenager,]] a Russian immigrant (although she's lost the accent), who finds herself struggling with the day-to-day trials of highschool life, like her crush Sean and [[DeadpanSnarker mouthy]] friend Siobhan. One day, she falls down an abandoned well and discovers the bones of a young girl who fell down there before her... As well as the ghost of said girl, still haunting the well she died in ninety years prior. [[CuteGhostGirl The ghost, Emily, turns out to be pretty friendly,]] and the two eventually become good friends, as well as partners in crime. (Anya uses her invisible buddy to [[MundaneUtility cheat on tests, keep watch while she's smoking and spy on classmates.]]) Of course, these sort of things rarely end well, and soon Emily proves more of a problem than a friend.

* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: The other kids picking on Dima. His bullying is only seen for one panel, but it's enough to drive the message home.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Anya's definitely no angel: she lies about her last name and ethnicity, conspires to steal the boyfriend of a girl who has never wronged her whilst playing nice to said girl, ditches her one friend the moment she finds another friend who acts subservient to her, and seriously believes that nerds and minorities have themselves to thank for being picked on.
** She does show moral backbone when push comes to shove, though. [[spoiler:She can't go through with having sex with Sean, out of pity for Elizabeth; apologizes to Siobhan when meeting up with her later; comforts Dima when he asks her how she manages to survive high school so well; and in the end stops lying about being Russian]].

* ShoutOut: [[WesternAnimation/CorpseBride A girl named Emily who comes back from the dead involved in a love triangle]] and a [[Literature/SweetValleyHigh popular blonde girl named Elizabeth...]] Where have we seen this before...

* TheUnpronounceable: Anya's last name is Borzakovskaya.

* {{Yandere}}: The teaser on the cover makes it seem like Emily will be one, but subverted. [[spoiler: Emily didn't 'help' Anya for her sake, she did it because she wanted to ''make'' Anya live the life she couldn't have.]]
** [[spoiler:It's revealed that Emily also played this trope straight otherwise, though. She burnt down the house of the boy she liked while he and his girlfriend were inside. because he rejected her feelings for him.]]

--> ''"People might think five-years-olds can't be cruel, but I have some strong evidence to the contrary."''